Organo-electrocatalyst realizing efficient hydrogen production

Hydrogen is not only a green fuel but also a source of life at the beginning of the universe. Till now, electro-catalyzed hydrogen production plays an essential role in high-purity hydrogen production, where platinum-based catalysts take up the main parts due to their high efficiency and durability. However, the limited resources and high costs of noble metal species prohibit its larger-scale application, making it necessary to put forward new alternatives. The organocatalysts thus show promising potential in the practical industry, which is easy to design and synthesize. More importantly, it doesn’t contain any metal, cutting down the costs. In this work, the organocatalysts containing nitrogen and phosphorus sites are designed, exhibiting high catalytic activity (19 mV@10 mA·cm-2, 143 mV@400 mA·cm-2) and stability (more than 60 days) in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). With organocatalysts firstly applied in practical hydrogen production, the price of H2 per Nm3 (0.37 $ꞏNm-3) is reduced to half of the Pt-based catalysts, making it possible for society to step into the green-H2 era. Moreover, since organocatalysts are introduced into inorganic electrochemistry, a field of organ-electrocatalysis will arise, bringing evolution in metal-dominated cathodic electrocatalysis and traditional organic catalysis as well.